It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

The Its Monday! What Are You Reading meme is hosted at Book Journey.

Life…

It’s been a quiet week, sleeping in and keeping indoors where its cool which is good because I have been able to catch up a little. The kids have been pretty good at keeping themselves amused and unbelievably there is only two weeks left of summer holidays.

Next weekend we celebrate Australia Day, my oldest will perform at the official ceremony, the younger ones have plans with their cub and scout troops and I’ll be hosting the Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop with over 50 hosts – don’t miss it!

What I Read Last Week

Lord of the Hunt {Court of Annwyn #2} by Shona Husk

The Greatest Lover Ever {Westruthers #2} by Christina Brooke

Hurt {DS Lucy Black #2} by Brian McGilloway

A Breath of Frost {The Lovegrove Legacy #1} by Alyxandria Harvey

Snowblind by Christopher Golden

Raven Flight {Shadowfell #2} by Julliet Marillier

New Posts

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Review: The Sacrificial Man by Ruth Dugdall ★★★

AWW Feature: Shona Husk on the rules for visiting fairyland

Review: Lord of the Hunt by Shona Husk ★★★★

Review: Kids These Days by Drew Perry ★★

Review: The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg ★★★★

AWW Feature: Christina Brooke on Passion

Review: The Greatest Lover Ever by Christina Brooke ★★★★

Review: The Good Nurse: A true story of medicine, madness and murder by Charles Graeber ★★★★

Stuff On Sunday: Bookshelf Bounty

What I Am Reading Today

Reminiscent of early Roddy Doyle, Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma begins with our singular heroine’s less than idyllic birth and quickly moves to a spectacular fight that lands Janie and her mother in a local women’s shelter. From there it’s on to a dodgy council flat and a succession of unsuitable men, including the hard-drinking, drug-dealing, ice-cream-buying Tony Hogan. Kerry Hudson’s arrestingly original debut will enthrall readers with Janie’s tragicomic and moving story about coming of age in a non-traditional family amid the absurdities of the 1980s and Thatcherite Britain.

 What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

It’s 1946 and Regina Robichard is the first woman to be hired by Thurgood Marshall at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. One day, Regina comes across a letter from M. P. Calhoun, the most famous yet reclusive author in the country. As a child Regina was captivated by Calhoun’s The Secret of Magic, a novel in which white and black children played together in a magical forest. The book was a sensation. It was banned more than any other book in the South. It appeared on the cover of Time magazine. And then M. P. Calhoun vanished. Calhoun asks Thurgood Marshall to investigate the murder of Joe Howard Wilson, a decorated black lieutenant who had been on his way back to his small Mississippi town, worn and weary from World War II combat. Joe Howard had called his daddy from the Alabama border, telling him he would be home in two hours’ time. But Joe Howard never arrived . . . and two weeks later his murdered body was found. Despite his better judgment, Thurgood gives Regina permission to investigate the case. But down in Mississippi, she finds that nothing in the small town of Revere is as it seems, and she must navigate the muddy waters of racism and town secrets as she tries the impossible-to get justice for a black man in the deep South.

About to graduate from university in upstate New York, Lana Granger takes a job in town looking after eleven year old Luke. Expelled from schools all over the country, manipulative Luke is accustomed to controlling the people in his life. He likes to play games. But in Lana he may have met his match. Or has Lana met hers? Because Lana is a liar. She has told so many lies about where she comes from and who she is, that even she can’t remember the truth. Then Lana’s closest friend Beck mysteriously goes missing, and Lana’s alibi for the night of the disappearance doesn’t match with eyewitness accounts. Now, Lana finds herself lying again – to friends, to the police, to herself. Lana is willing to do almost anything to keep the truth – about her last night with Beck, about everything – from coming out. Even so, it might not be enough to keep her shocking secrets dead and buried. But somebody knows all about Lana’s lies. And they are dying to tell.

In this poignant and inspiring memoir, a beloved high school English teacher with terminal brain cancer undertakes a cross-country journey to reunite with his former students in order to find out if he made a difference in their lives, discovering along the way what is truly important in life. At thirty-four years old, David Menasche was diagnosed with brain cancer. Six years later and fifteen years after he began teaching, Menasche suffered a catastrophic seizure that began to steal his vision, memories, mobility, and perhaps most tragically of all-his ability to continue teaching. But teaching is something David Menasche can’t quit. Undaunted by the difficult road ahead of him, he decided to end his treatments and make life his classroom. Cancer had taken his past and would certainly, at some point, take his future, but he wouldn’t allow it to take his present. He put out a call on Facebook and within hours of posting his plan to travel the country, former students now living in more than fifty cities replied with offers to help and couches to sleep on. The lasting lessons he collected on his journey make up The Priority List. The Priority List is one of those special books, like Tuesdays with Morrie, or The Last Lecture. Books that are not just written, but born of our ultimate shared experience, and connect and move us as such. Based on one of Menasche’s favorite lessons, The Priority List is a remarkable book of insights that explores many of life’s biggest themes, such as love, wealth, family, ambition, and friends, and asks us all to consider what really matters.

In Hollywood, not everyone is ready for their close up, especially when it exposes the secrets of past … Zoe Greene manages the careers of Hollywood’s biggest stars. She’ll do anything to help them – and herself – get ahead. Actress Maggie Hall has been America’s sweetheart for nearly twenty years. And she’s about to learn that there are two things in life you just can’t fight: growing older and falling in love. Dylan Mercer – young, beautiful and defiant – has run away from New York to try her luck in Hollywood. She’s not after fame and fortune, though. Dylan’s on a quest to find her birth mother. All three women are swept up in the search for the actress who will score the role of a lifetime. But ambition and desire can bring out the worst in people. And in a town built on illusions, believing you can escape your past might just be the biggest illusion of all.

While you are here…

WINNER of Cemetery Girl by Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden: Elyse Victoria

Last days to Sign up to host for the Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop

Sign Up for the Eclectic Reader Challenge 2014

Thanks for stopping by, I’ll try to be along to visit you shortly!